GPU Clouds arenaBuyer checklist

Every requirement we judge gpu clouds products against, as a ready-to-send RFP checklist — with each item's priority, why it matters, and how the top-ranked products score on it today.

54 requirements · 13 themes · verdicts for 5 products · updated 2026-09-05 · priorities mirror the story weights our scoring uses (methodology)

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# GPU Clouds — buyer checklist (RFP)

Derived from ProductArena's evidence-graded user-story taxonomy for GPU Clouds: 54 judged requirements. Priorities mirror story weights (3 = must-have, 2 = should-have, 1 = nice-to-have).

## Access connectivity

- [ ] **[must-have]** SSH into my GPU instance with my own keys and get root-level control of the environment
- [ ] **[nice-to-have]** Open Jupyter or connect my IDE (VS Code/Cursor) to the instance in one step
- [ ] **[nice-to-have]** Expose ports to serve applications from my instance and connect instances over private networking

## Agenticness

- [ ] **[must-have]** Plug MCP servers into this product so it can use their tools
- [ ] **[must-have]** Connect an agent via an official MCP server
- [ ] **[must-have]** Drive the product through a documented public API
- [ ] **[must-have]** Delegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the product
- [ ] **[should-have]** Point an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docs
- [ ] **[should-have]** Run the product headlessly / in CI for automation
- [ ] **[should-have]** Use an official CLI
- [ ] **[should-have]** Issue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agent
- [ ] **[should-have]** Build against official SDKs
- [ ] **[should-have]** Subscribe to events via webhooks
- [ ] **[should-have]** Get AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the product
- [ ] **[should-have]** Set up automations that run autonomously in the background
- [ ] **[should-have]** Operate the product with natural-language commands
- [ ] **[should-have]** Explore an interactive API reference with runnable examples
- [ ] **[should-have]** Download a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent)
- [ ] **[should-have]** Rely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policy
- [ ] **[nice-to-have]** Test against a sandbox environment without touching production data

## Automation depth

- [ ] **[must-have]** Define rules that trigger actions automatically on events
- [ ] **[should-have]** Perform bulk operations across many items at once
- [ ] **[should-have]** Schedule recurring jobs or workflows
- [ ] **[nice-to-have]** Version, review, and roll back my automations

## Capacity availability

- [ ] **[should-have]** See real-time GPU availability by type and region before I try to provision, instead of discovering stockouts by failure
- [ ] **[should-have]** Choose from current-generation datacenter GPUs (H100/H200/B200 class) as well as cheaper previous-generation options
- [ ] **[should-have]** See documented quotas and instance limits and raise them through a defined process

## Clusters scale

- [ ] **[must-have]** Provision a multi-node GPU cluster with fast interconnect for distributed training without a sales cycle
- [ ] **[should-have]** Schedule jobs on managed Slurm or Kubernetes instead of building my own scheduler on raw nodes

## Openness

- [ ] **[must-have]** Export all of my data in open formats and leave
- [ ] **[must-have]** Self-host the core product
- [ ] **[should-have]** Do everything through the API that I can do in the UI
- [ ] **[should-have]** Read the product's source under an open license

## Pricing billing

- [ ] **[must-have]** I am billed at per-second or per-minute granularity and only while my instance is actually running
- [ ] **[must-have]** See the published per-GPU-hour price for every GPU type on a public pricing page without talking to sales
- [ ] **[must-have]** Rent spot or interruptible GPU capacity at a deep discount with clearly documented preemption semantics
- [ ] **[should-have]** Pull usage and billing breakdowns programmatically to attribute GPU spend by team or workload
- [ ] **[should-have]** Query the GPU catalog with live pricing and availability from a public or documented endpoint before committing any spend
- [ ] **[nice-to-have]** Lock in reserved or committed-use discounts for sustained GPU capacity

## Privacy posture

- [ ] **[must-have]** Prevent my data from being used to train AI models
- [ ] **[should-have]** Choose where my data is stored (region/residency)
- [ ] **[should-have]** Control data retention and deletion
- [ ] **[should-have]** Opt out of telemetry and usage tracking

## Provisioning lifecycle

- [ ] **[must-have]** Provision a GPU, monitor it, run a workload, and tear it down end to end through documented APIs, CLI, or MCP without a human in the console
- [ ] **[must-have]** Provision an on-demand GPU instance from the console or API and be running code on it within minutes
- [ ] **[should-have]** Set auto-shutdown timers or spend limits so a forgotten instance can't silently run up a huge bill
- [ ] **[should-have]** Start, stop, restart, and terminate instances programmatically and keep paying only for what is running

## Serverless endpoints

- [ ] **[should-have]** Deploy code to autoscaling serverless GPU workers that scale to zero, instead of managing always-on instances

## Storage data

- [ ] **[must-have]** Attach persistent network storage that survives instance teardown, so datasets and checkpoints outlive any single GPU rental
- [ ] **[should-have]** Move data in and out efficiently — S3-compatible endpoints, cloud-storage sync, or documented transfer tooling

## Templates images

- [ ] **[should-have]** Run my own Docker image or custom machine template with my exact environment
- [ ] **[should-have]** Launch from pre-built ML templates (PyTorch, CUDA, vLLM, ComfyUI) instead of assembling an environment from scratch

## Trust governance

- [ ] **[should-have]** Verify the provider's security and compliance posture (SOC 2, data handling, datacenter tiers) before putting proprietary models on it
- [ ] **[nice-to-have]** Manage team members with roles and scoped API keys so credentials and spend stay controlled

---

Source: https://ultrametric.ai/productarena/arena/gpu-clouds (evidence-graded verdicts for 5 products) · methodology: https://ultrametric.ai/productarena/methodology

Chips show the top 5 ranked products' current verdict on each requirement — ✓ full · ~ partial · ! disputed · — none · n/a not applicable.

Access connectivity — stories about access connectivity in this arenaAccess connectivity· 3 items

Stories about access connectivity in this arena

developerSSH into my GPU instance with my own keys and get root-level control of the environment
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
developerOpen Jupyter or connect my IDE (VS Code/Cursor) to the instance in one step
Differentiator, not a dealbreaker — weighs 1× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
nice-to-have
developerExpose ports to serve applications from my instance and connect instances over private networking
Differentiator, not a dealbreaker — weighs 1× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
nice-to-have

Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness· 17 items

How well agents can access and operate the product

ai-native userPlug MCP servers into this product so it can use their tools
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ai-native userConnect an agent via an official MCP server
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ai-native userDrive the product through a documented public API
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · all 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ai-native userDelegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the product
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ai-native userPoint an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docs
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userRun the product headlessly / in CI for automation
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 4 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userUse an official CLI
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userIssue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agent
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userBuild against official SDKs
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userSubscribe to events via webhooks
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userGet AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the product
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userSet up automations that run autonomously in the background
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userOperate the product with natural-language commands
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userExplore an interactive API reference with runnable examples
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userDownload a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent)
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userRely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policy
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userTest against a sandbox environment without touching production data
Differentiator, not a dealbreaker — weighs 1× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
nice-to-have

Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth· 4 items

How much of the product can run unattended

ai-native userDefine rules that trigger actions automatically on events
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ai-native userPerform bulk operations across many items at once
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userSchedule recurring jobs or workflows
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userVersion, review, and roll back my automations
Differentiator, not a dealbreaker — weighs 1× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
nice-to-have

Capacity availability — stories about capacity availability in this arenaCapacity availability· 3 items

Stories about capacity availability in this arena

ml engineerSee real-time GPU availability by type and region before I try to provision, instead of discovering stockouts by failure
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ml engineerChoose from current-generation datacenter GPUs (H100/H200/B200 class) as well as cheaper previous-generation options
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
platform engineerSee documented quotas and instance limits and raise them through a defined process
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have

Clusters scale — stories about clusters scale in this arenaClusters scale· 2 items

Stories about clusters scale in this arena

ml engineerProvision a multi-node GPU cluster with fast interconnect for distributed training without a sales cycle
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
platform engineerSchedule jobs on managed Slurm or Kubernetes instead of building my own scheduler on raw nodes
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have

Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness· 4 items

Open source, data portability, and self-hosting stories

ai-native userExport all of my data in open formats and leave
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ai-native userSelf-host the core product
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ai-native userDo everything through the API that I can do in the UI
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userRead the product's source under an open license
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have

Pricing billing — stories about pricing billing in this arenaPricing billing· 6 items

Stories about pricing billing in this arena

ml engineerI am billed at per-second or per-minute granularity and only while my instance is actually running
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ml engineerSee the published per-GPU-hour price for every GPU type on a public pricing page without talking to sales
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ml engineerRent spot or interruptible GPU capacity at a deep discount with clearly documented preemption semantics
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
platform engineerPull usage and billing breakdowns programmatically to attribute GPU spend by team or workload
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai agentQuery the GPU catalog with live pricing and availability from a public or documented endpoint before committing any spend
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
platform engineerLock in reserved or committed-use discounts for sustained GPU capacity
Differentiator, not a dealbreaker — weighs 1× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
nice-to-have

Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture· 4 items

Data-handling and privacy stories

ai-native userPrevent my data from being used to train AI models
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ai-native userChoose where my data is stored (region/residency)
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userControl data retention and deletion
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
ai-native userOpt out of telemetry and usage tracking
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have

Provisioning lifecycle — creating, updating, and tearing down resources across their lifecycleProvisioning lifecycle· 4 items

Creating, updating, and tearing down resources across their lifecycle

ai agentProvision a GPU, monitor it, run a workload, and tear it down end to end through documented APIs, CLI, or MCP without a human in the console
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
developerProvision an on-demand GPU instance from the console or API and be running code on it within minutes
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
ml engineerSet auto-shutdown timers or spend limits so a forgotten instance can't silently run up a huge bill
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
developerStart, stop, restart, and terminate instances programmatically and keep paying only for what is running
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have

Serverless endpoints — stories about serverless endpoints in this arenaServerless endpoints· 1 item

Stories about serverless endpoints in this arena

developerDeploy code to autoscaling serverless GPU workers that scale to zero, instead of managing always-on instances
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 1 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have

Storage data — storing and moving data — persistence, formats, durabilityStorage data· 2 items

Storing and moving data — persistence, formats, durability

developerAttach persistent network storage that survives instance teardown, so datasets and checkpoints outlive any single GPU rental
Core requirement — weighs 3× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
must-have
developerMove data in and out efficiently — S3-compatible endpoints, cloud-storage sync, or documented transfer tooling
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have

Templates images — stories about templates images in this arenaTemplates images· 2 items

Stories about templates images in this arena

developerRun my own Docker image or custom machine template with my exact environment
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 3 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
developerLaunch from pre-built ML templates (PyTorch, CUDA, vLLM, ComfyUI) instead of assembling an environment from scratch
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · 2 of 5 products fully deliver this today
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have

Trust governance — stories about trust governance in this arenaTrust governance· 2 items

Stories about trust governance in this arena

platform engineerVerify the provider's security and compliance posture (SOC 2, data handling, datacenter tiers) before putting proprietary models on it
Important, not disqualifying — weighs 2× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
should-have
platform engineerManage team members with roles and scoped API keys so credentials and spend stay controlled
Differentiator, not a dealbreaker — weighs 1× in arena scoring · no product fully delivers this yet
Vast.ai Runpod Lambda CoreWeave Paperspace
nice-to-have

Full evidence behind every verdict lives on the arena page and each product page — chips above deep-link straight to the judged story.

🎛️GPU Clouds arenaBuyer checklist

🌐Access connectivity — stories about access connectivity in this arenaAccess connectivity· 3 items

🤖Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness· 17 items

⚙️Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth· 4 items

📅Capacity availability — stories about capacity availability in this arenaCapacity availability· 3 items

🚀Clusters scale — stories about clusters scale in this arenaClusters scale· 2 items

🔓Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness· 4 items

🧾Pricing billing — stories about pricing billing in this arenaPricing billing· 6 items

🔒Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture· 4 items

🗄️Provisioning lifecycle — creating, updating, and tearing down resources across their lifecycleProvisioning lifecycle· 4 items

🚀Serverless endpoints — stories about serverless endpoints in this arenaServerless endpoints· 1 item

✨Storage data — storing and moving data — persistence, formats, durabilityStorage data· 2 items

🎥Templates images — stories about templates images in this arenaTemplates images· 2 items

⚖️Trust governance — stories about trust governance in this arenaTrust governance· 2 items